After enduring long, perilous journeys through the Sahara desert, often experiencing kidnapping and violence at the hands of smugglers, migrants and asylum-seekers who eventually reach Libya risk arrest and long periods of incarceration in one of the country’s 20 official detention centres – all of which are overcrowded and underfunded.

IRIN gained rare access to one such detention centre on the outskirts of the port city of Misrata.

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